 Define mindful eating
 Learn 4 steps to practice
mindful eating
 Identify hunger versus satiety
 Learn easy tips to
incorporate mindful eating
into your daily schedule

 Paying attention to what we are eating, eating
with AWARENESS
 Being aware of each sensation of the
experience of eating
 Acknowledge chewing, tasting and swallowing
food moment by moment

 Mindfulness practices have been shown to have
a positive impact on psychological and
physical health, including stress, depression,
anxiety, chronic pain, and heart disease.

 There is evidence that mindful eating helps with
treatment of obesity as well as binge eating
disorders.
 The benefits of mindful eating are not restricted
to physical and emotional health improvements;
they can also impact one’s entire life, through a
better sense of balance and well-being

 Adults in India devote an average of 1 hour and 12
minutes per day to eating, yet spend between 2½
and 3 hours per day watching television
 School lunch periods
provide an average of
7 to 11 minutes for
students to eat their lunch

 Scientists are beginning to better understand the
role of the mind-body connection in eating behavior.
 When our mind is tuned out during mealtime, the
digestive process may be up to 30% to 40% less
effective.
› This can contribute to digestive distress, such as
gas, bloating and bowel irregularities.

 The mind-body connection plays a important role
in our ability to accurately assess hunger and
fullness.
 We eat meal after meal, snack after snack, barely
aware of what we’re eating and how much we’re
consuming.
 Mindful eating is powerful – it keeps you in the
present and can help you facilitate change

 We often pair eating with other activities, such
as driving or working at our desks.
 Where and how did you eat your breakfast
today??

 This is the core of
Mindful Eating
 Use this technique
with any solid food

Group Activity
1. Open the chocolate.
2. As you bring food to your mouth, slow down and
become aware of your movements.
3. Once the food is in your mouth, clear your
hands. Put hands (or silverware) or remaining
food down.

4. Chew this bite with your mind in laser-sharp focus
on the process. Concentrate on the taste of the
food and the act of eating. Don't do anything else
while you're chewing. Simply chew and pay
attention.
5. Keep chewing until the food is uniformly smooth.
Use this consistency of the food as a signal to
swallow.

6. After you swallow, but before you bring more food
to your mouth, rest for a few seconds, thereby
inserting a pause into your eating.

 With the Basic Mindful Bite as your fundamental
technique, you can approach mindful eating in
four ways:
› Arriving at food
› Awakening to the food
› Tuning in to the body
› Service with food

 Arriving at food means that we become aware
before a meal or snack that food has come
into our personal space.
 This sounds simple, but actually it's more difficult
than you might think. Food is so abundant in our
society that we're scarcely aware of it and we
can be eating and not even know that we've
made a choice to eat.

 Before you begin eating any meal or snack, become silent for 30
seconds. During this 30 seconds:
› Take a close look at the food. Notice colors, shapes
and arrangements.
› Name to yourself all the foods you see.
› Name to yourself all the plants and animals that are
represented in the food.
› Bring your face close to the food and detect all the
odors in the food.
› Think about the human effort it took to get the food to
you.
› Imagine yourself eating each food attentively and on
purpose.

 If you do this activity seriously, you will have truly
arrived at your meal. This sets the stage for you to
continue your mindfulness during your eating.

 Awakening to food means that we pay attention
to all the aspects of food
 When we awaken, we notice the sensations of
the food, such as taste, change of flavors,
texture and aromas. We can also look deeper to
see the effort, resources and sacrifices within
each food as well.
 A mindful eater spends at least one moment
during each bite waking up to some aspect of
the food.

 Mindful eaters pay close attention to
themselves as they eat.
 Become aware of how many chews it takes for
you to chew your food completely.
 Have a “baseline” number of chews for eat bite

 Notice your emotions when you eat
 Notice how your body feels as you eat
 With mindful eating there is no “bad” food,
and no guilt associated with eating

 Mindful eating includes being aware of all the
activities that surround food and eating.
› Setting the table, clearing the table, loading the
dishwasher, putting away leftovers
 When we adopt a careful, deliberate way of
behaving with any action involving food, we help
ourselves stay in the moment and heighten the
degree by which we honor food.

How do you
know when
it’s time to
eat?

 How to tell if you are hungry
› Physical signs
› The desire to eat doesn’t go
away
› The desire for food intensifies
over time
› A non-favorite food even
sounds good

 Do not ignore true hunger
 Most people need to eat every 3-4 hours
while awake
› Metabolic rate
› Blood sugars
› Mood

 What is a craving?
› No physical hunger “pains”
› The thought of eating goes away if distracted
› You feel “emotional” about eating that food
› You want something specific: crunchy, sweet,
salty

 It’s normal to feel cravings
 But we want to relate to them mindfully and not
get blinded by them
 We can learn to become aware of our cravings
and their messages

 Normally, we think of portions as how much food
is on the plate.
 But in mindful eating, portions include:
› How often we eat
› How much food is on the spoon or fork
› How long we take to chew our food
› How often we stop during a meal to find out if
we really need more food
› How much time we pause between bites

 Breaking an eating habit and forming
a new one is difficult!

 Eat sitting down
 Create ambiance
 Eat without TV, newspaper, computer or work
 Chew your food 30 to 50 times per bite
 Watch the clock; try to make the meal last at
least 20 minutes.

 Eat with chopsticks
 Eat with your non-
dominant hand
 Don’t eat from a bag or
box
 Box up half of the meal
at a restaurant
 Keep extra food away
from table

 Use a smaller plate at meals
 Do not skip meals
 Plan meals and snacks ahead of time
 Keep a mindful eating journal
 Try a Two-Plate Approach
› Use a second plate to eat from, taking only
half of the food

 Mindful eating involves paying full attention to
the experience of eating and drinking, both
inside and outside the body.
 Mindful eating helps us learn to hear what our
body is telling us about hunger and
satisfaction.
 Eating mindfully can improve our overall
health.
 Try it at lunch and at home today!

 The Center for Mindful Eating
› www.tcme.org
 The CAMP system
› www.mindfuleating.org
 Diettogo.com
 United State Dept of Agriculture
› www.choosemyplate.gov